My Story, Your Story: Maggie Harris and Alex Barr at PENfro Festival

Enjoy readings and interviews with two talented writers and their new short story collections.

Maggie Harris’ stories are informed by the Caribbean, where she was born, and Britain where she has lived as an adult, and through them, the wider world. Issues of belonging and migration feature, but alongside these are growing interests in voice, narrative, gardening and botany, music and family. There are both UK and Caribbean voices in these tales, told by children, migrants, mothers, grandparents.This is a varied collection containing stories such as 'Sending for Chantal', telling a tale of Caribbean migration, set around the story of a child who hasn't seen her mother since she was 4 and is now in her 30s, which was Regional Winner of The Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2014.

Alex Barr’s My Life with Eva is a collection of stories written over the last twenty years ranging across the globe, from the Welsh coast to Genoa, and from Kansas to Khartoum. Several have won awards and two have been read on Radio 4.